Game 28: Tampa Bay Rays vs. New York Yankees

The bullpen doors opened, and out trotted the iconic closer, Mariano Rivera, to the music of AC/DC's Enter Sandman. The Yankees had just battled back, tying the game in the bottom of the eighth. Their closer was supposed to shut down the Rays in the top of the ninth.

But Carl Crawford and Evan Longoria had other ideas.

Mariano Rivera gave up back to back home runs in the top of the ninth inning for the first time in his career, and the Yankees lost their fifth game in a row Thursday night, 8-6.

The two home runs ran Rivera's home run total for the season to four, the same amount he gave up all last year.

Before the ninth inning, the Yankees rallied to tie the game, courtesy of a two out, two-run home run by Johnny Damon. After Derek Jeter singled with two outs off of Dan Wheeler, Damon took Wheeler's offering into the right-field seats.

Damon finished the night with four RBI.

Both starting pitchers struggled tonight, as the teams combined to hit eight home runs. The Rays started the home run parade in the first inning, with back-to-back home runs by Longoria and Carlos Pena. Pettitte would give up four more home runs in his six innings.

Rays pitcher Jeff Niemann surrendered two runs on and three hits in 3 1/3 innings.

The loss drops the Yankees to 13-15 on the season heading into a three game series in Baltimore. The team will get back third baseman Alex Rodriguez back from injury. The slugger missed the first month after undergoing hip surgery.

My Personal Thoughts:

1. Anyone for a hit with RISP? The Yankees could only plate two runners tonight in scoring position. My stat might be incorrect, but the team went 2-for-7 with RISP tonight. They were miserable for the series, and it's plagued them throughout the first month of the season. A lot has been said about the implosion of the bullpen, but this is one of the main reasons why this team is struggling.

2. It seems like a while since the Yankees had a lead... And it has been. The last time the Yankees had a lead in a game was Saturday against the Angels. They've constantly been playing from behind, and it's never good to continually fight an uphill battle. This team needs to start scoring within the first three innings. These late rallies are exciting, but it's not a good formula for wins.

3. The home-field cooking ain't so good! With the loss tonight, the Yankees fell to 6-7 in the House that George Built. They haven't really shown anything at home so far, getting blown out 22-2 and losing late games. The team needs to start winning some of these games at home and getting some type of advantage. The positive? There's only been 13 home games so far. Plenty of time to turn it around.

Other Game Notes:

1. Jose Molina: He left the game in the bottom of the fifth after scoring on Johnny Damon's RBI double. He's been diagnosed with a strained quad muscle, and that's all the injury information the Yankees released. It's a good thing the team brought up Frankie Cervelli. Now we'll have to see what move this team makes. My guess is that Kevin Cash will come up and play, but he's spent significant time on the DL down in AAA. Molina is the latest in a long line of injured Yankees, and it's depleted the bench and forced Cashman and Girardi to use AAA guys who aren't ready for the bigs.

2. Johnny Damon: Johnny is swinging a hot bat lately. He's been on fire, and tonight had four RBI. He single-handedly kept the Yankees in this game. The rest of the team has been struggling, but Damon has been tearing the cover off of the ball. I don't know if its feasible, but why not move Damon to the third spot and move Teixeira down in the order. It probably won't happen, but he should have a chance to drive in the guys on base ahead of him. Maybe put Melky in the two hole. Just some random musings...